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The same reason big companies pay premium for external consultants instead of directly hiring. You don't want to deal with employees, as well as you don't want to deal with HW, data center, and all that comes with it. You know you are paying premium, but you are also delegating tons of headache and responsibilities.

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The mining companies I work with often hire equipment semi-permanently instead of buying it. It’s an insane cash crop for the hire companies because the payback time on the equipment is a few months and then it’s pure profit, but apparently a $700/week car rental payment is easier to get through accounts than a one off $50k purchase.

Well I guess by renting they can get the latest and greatest machine available instead of dealing with an old machine bought say 5 years prior. If the machine breaks, well you just get another one. No maintenance cost for the company. I mean it depends. Buy it is not always the best thing to do. Renting may be more convenient sometime.

You'd hope so but these are the same machines on site that have been there for years and they're still paying the same per week for them. It literally just comes down to the capex/opex dilemma, individual caps on expenditure without review, and lack of motivation to improve efficiency if it doesn't land in their pocket from everyone else.

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